Federal funding cuts to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) resulted in the removal of databases, impacting student and professor access.
The TSLAC TexShare program allows Texas libraries to share print and electronic media along with resource and staff knowledge, which is included in the Alkek Library.
As of May 3, the ProQuest African American Heritage Database was dropped, and as of Aug. 31 WorldCat database was dropped, according to the Alkek Library.
Associate Vice Provost for Curriculum and Academic Programs Jeff Housman said there is a certain process research databases must go through in order to be implemented into the curriculum.
“Just having that access and learning how to look through the research, being able to read it and understand the conclusion, just at that level of understanding, [is something] I don’t think you can get unless you have access to a broad spectrum of research,” Housman said.
According to Vice Provost and University Librarian Kelly Visnak in an email to The Star, Texas State University’s Libraries does not receive any direct federal funding and has only felt minimal effects from funding cuts to TSALC.
In March, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order, titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which impacted federal funding of programs such as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which covers 75% of the budget to TSLAC via grants.
“Through TexShare, we have access to much higher journals and databases than we would without it. It’s kind of an equity issue…it’s a pretty wide wipeout,” Ashleen Bagnulo, associate professor of the political science department, said.
IMS’ budget is about $266.7 million of the total annual federal budget, Texas receives $12.5 million which is expected to be diminished due to budget cuts.
“I’d be very worried about this if I were a doctoral student right now. I’d be trying to download everything I can,” Bagnulo said.
Nalani Pennick, healthcare administration senior, said she wants to come back to Texas State for her masters to do research on the history of healthcare for African-American communities and other minority groups.
“Sometimes we need things that are ‘reserved for other people’ that get overlooked because it’s very easy to overlook people, sometimes when they don’t fit the status quo of what you’re looking for, but that doesn’t qualify for what they are needing,” Pennick said.
Texas State courses are primarily developed and overseen by faculty, which includes what types of research databases they require, according to Housman.
When Pennick first came to Texas State, she had to write multiple research papers about controversial topics utilizing school resources and databases. Pennick continued stating that without access to those types of research, she wouldn’t have understood the history behind each topic.
“Taking away just research … just means that whenever a student will try to write a research paper, their basis of it will probably not be the best, or they will not have the best understanding of why, [and] they won’t have the cause and effect,” Pennick said.
Housman said it is often unclear in what field research results will be used, that within history the most important discoveries came from research like studying snails.
“The danger of having limitations on research is that it prevents exploration that’s typically necessary for us to sometimes or oftentimes find things that we weren’t really looking for,” Housman said.
